By Mark Gregory
Editorial Director
@Hear_The_Beard
mark@buglemewspapers.com
Route 66 Raceway in Joliet set out to bring even more entertainment than it has in previous years to the annual Burndown at Sundown – and it succeeded.
Logan Cruz performs her fire act at Route 66 Raceway.
The Saturday night main event fell in the middle of a weekend packed with exciting racing for die-hard race fan.
Saturday’s event still provided a full day of drag racing, but twice during the night the motor sports circus came out.
“This is a unique event because there is something for everyone. For people who have a love for drag racing – it has that,” said Scott Paddock, President of Chicagoland Speedway and Route 66 Raceway. “We are going to have close to 500 cars this weekend competing. But, several years ago, we started to build a very spectator driven exhibition around it and that is what it is. It is our thrill show, it is our night of fire. It is the wow factor. It has turned into a real family event over the years. People like thrill shows and they like the unknown.”
It featured the USFMX, a new addition to the card this year, that saw dirt bikes flying 40-feet in the air, jumping over an 80-foot long semi truck all while doing tricks and stunts in the air.
“It was a privilege to come out and be the first ones to do freestyle motocross at an event like this,” said Terry Russell, one of the daredevils. “The crowd was great, I think they had a great time. We had a nice autograph line with a lot of kids who wanted to meet us after.”
Russell said it was nice to perform at an event that was geared to motorsport fans.
“It was a breath of fresh air to go to a motor sports event and one that was the quality of this,” he said. “We perform at a lot of fairs and places like that, so this was nice. It was a good merge of two different types of motorsports. My hat is off to the gentleman at Route 66 Raceway that brought us in and he they said they thought there was a chance we would be brought back – so hopefully we are back next year.”
Russell was joined by Cody Elkins and Jared Larue at the event.
If there wasn’t enough excitement inside the track, fans were treated to more fire stunts as they exited the grandstands and made their way to their cars.
Fire breather Logan Cruz was back for her second year of performing for fans and drew a hefty crowd from fans that wanted more entertainment.
“I love the event here,” Cruz said. “I have never been super into cars, but the cars that are here are so cool, especially the jet cars. It is perfect because everyone gets psyched up about the fire inside and as they are walking out, there is more fire. It really is a family event out here.”
Cruz will be the feature artist in a web series called Chicago Talent, a new reality show that showcases the lives and endeavors of several Illinois artists and entrepreneurs, that will begin in August.